Because I Could Not Stop for Death He Kindly Stopped for Me
by Captain Shamrock
Summary: With the death of her parents Ella has to move in with her closest family relative who happens to be Bruce Wayne. Rated T for violence mild swearing. WARNING GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF DEPRESSION IN LATER CHAPTERS!


**Hello everyone this story was once Life Changes but I have decided to rewrite the whole thing. Please read the Emily Dickinson poems at the start of each chapter because they set the mood.**

**I own nothing except my OCs**

_We never know how high we are_

_Till we are called to rise;_

_And then, if we are true to plan,_

_Our statures touch the skies._

_The heroism we recite_

_Would be a daily thing,_

_Did not ourselves the cubits warp_

_For fear to be a king._

- Aspiration by Emily Dickinson

We all often wish for things in this life that we can never get, most people wish for the normal things, fame, money, eternal youth, world domination. It is in fact, one of my wishes, to say that I am most people, but I'm not, I often wish that I was a dog. They don't have the worries we humans do, home work for one. These are the thoughts that run through my head while I watch my blue heeler Murphy bound after a ball that bounced through the crisp autumn leaves. I looked at my watch and took note that the sun would soon set, I whistled for Murphy to come and bent down to pick up his ball and clip the leash onto his collar and started the three block trek back home from the dog park.

I turned the last corner and looked up to gaze at my house in the fading light. In most ways it was a typical suburban house, a light blue two story with white trimmings, a white picket fence, and a small but unkept garden. My mom only gives it the time of day on her days off, if my dad touched it all the plants would probably die, before he married mom he couldn't even keep a fish alive. My home seemed to glow with a warm homey light that promised safety for all those who walked through the threshold. A chilly autumn breeze blew my black hair into my face snapping me out of my daydreaming spell, I shivered deeper into my jacket and opened the gate of the fence. Once inside the fence line I let Murphy off his leash and walked up the four concrete steps and let the both of us inside the house.

As soon as I stepped through the front door the warm air encircled me and my nose was filled with the enticing aroma of fajitas sizzling in a skillet. Murphy clearly smelled it too, because me ran past me and tore into the kitchen his nails clicking on the wood floors all the way, to start his nightly routine of begging for our food, even though his bowl is filled up behind him.

"Hey Ella make it home safe? No trouble I hope?" my dad said as I walked into the kitchen.

"Trouble? Dad this isn't a big city its Brookings nothing happens here." I sighed as I dropped Murphy's ball in his toy basket and took a seat at the table.

"If it's so safe why does your mom have to work late hmm? She's a cop and she certainly didn't give me the opinion that she was doing desk work tonight." He put the finishing touches on the fajitas and started grating cheese "hey do me a favor and grab the sour cream out of the fridge and the tortillas out of the cabinet? Please and thank you,"

I got up to get the last few things out of the fridge and cabinet set them next to my father then went to go kick my boots off and hang my jacket up. Walking back into the kitchen I saw that my dad had finished the cheese so I got two plates out of the dish washer and handed one to him. I grabbed a tortilla and started filling it up taking a seat across from my dad I took a bite, the fantastic taste filled my mouth, he may be bad at taking care of pets and gardening but my dad was a great cook. He is the one who usually does most of the cooking around here my mom being a cop and all she tries to get home but she does work late at least three times a month. He's an architect so he can work from home easily.

"So Dad do you know what Mom is doing tonight?" I asked taking another bite of fajitas.

"She didn't go into details about it she just said there was some weird crime out of town, about half way from Gotham City." He said sounding like he was just asking me to pass the salt. "Hey Ella can you pass me the salt? Also your mom is investigating a weird crime." We then commenced on the standard dinner time questions.

"How was school?"

"Fine."

"Did anything fun happen?"

"Not really."

After finishing dinner I helped my dad clean up then headed up the stairs to my room with Murphy at my heels. I walked down the hall my room was the last door on the right, I opened the door and walked in expertly stepping around the general clutter on the floor while Murphy made himself at home on my bed. I groaned as I gazed at my desk only to find my trigonometry book glaring back at me, I slowly sat down and opened it.

"I guess I can't put it off forever eh Murphy?" all he did was wag his tail in response.

-line—break-

About an hour and a half later I was settling down for bed, going about my standard nightly routine finally settling down with my favorite book, but I found I couldn't concentrate on the words. Why was my mom on a case that was half way to Gotham? Shirley that's out of our little towns jurisdiction and if it was half way in between our town and Gotham why wasn't the Gotham police department handling it? Though I suppose being the city with the highest crime rate in America can make the local police really busy.

I rolled over to turn off the lamp on my bedside table finally resining to try to drift into sleep with way more questions than answers.

**Ok so I know it's not the longest thing you have ever read but it will get longer. Also Sorry but we won't be seeing Bruce in these first couple of chapters so please bare with me.**

**Thank you for reading Best Wishes!**


End file.
